Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday #9

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is The Princess of Iowa by M. Molly Backes. Publication Date: May 8th 2012 by Candlewick.


Goodreads summary: What does it mean to do wrong, when no one punishes you? A smart and unflinching look at friendship, the nature of entitlement, and growing up in the heartland.

Paige Sheridan has the perfect life. She's pretty, rich, and popular, and her spot on the homecoming court is practically guaranteed. But when a night of partying ends in an it-could-have-been-so-much worse crash , everything changes. Her best friends start ignoring her, her boyfriend grows cold and distant, and her once-adoring younger sister now views her with contempt. The only bright spot is her creative writing class, led by a charismatic new teacher who encourages students to be true to themselves.

But who is Paige, if not the homecoming princess everyone expects her to be? In this arresting and witty debut, a girl who was once high-school royalty must face a truth that money and status can't fix, and choose between living the privileged life of a princess, or owning up to her mistakes and giving up everything she once held dear.

The Hunger Games


I was a little bit leery about starting this trilogy. First, I prefer books with a first person point of view. Second, I don't like present tense. Third, I thought it was a little rip-off of the concept of Gladiators and this one book I can't remember the title of but was basically about children being forced to fight to the death. When I come up with the title, I'll get back to you. Promise.

So as you can see, there were many things piled up against The Hunger Games. Add to the fact that I think the 'dystopian' genre is a bit irritating since it's basically YA Science Fiction (personal opinion, feel free to calmly state why you think I'm right/wrong) and you get one book that I really shouldn't like.

But ... I liked it. I mean, liked it so much I couldn't put it down. At all. I finished it yesterday and I'm buying it tomorrow so I can go to work, come home, and ignore my social life so I can finish book 2. And then, when I'm finished with that, I'll buy book 3 and repeat the cycle.

Show of comments: Who's seeing The Hunger Games when it comes out on March 23rd?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday #8



Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger. Publication Date: June 5th 2012 by Poppy (first published May 1st 2011).


Goodreads summary: Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorce dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancee and her kids. The fiancee's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Cats as Fonts

I love cats and fonts. There are numerous adorable kitten videos being watched on YouTube and dozens of typefaces copywriters are debating over. Helvetica? Arial? Comic Sans? Nooooo. Never Comic Sans. But together?

Presenting: Cats as Fonts from I Can Has Cheeseburger. My favorites are Helvetica and Courier. What about you?


Teaser Tuesday: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My Teaser Tuesday pick is:
"On our way out, Archie said, more to me than to Kevin, I thought: 'You'll know her more by your questions than her answers. Keep looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know.'" - Stargirl, pg. 35

Monday, February 20, 2012

Book Review: Hope was Here by Joan Bauer


Goodreads Review: What happens when a saucy, optimistic teenager and a terrific short-order diner cook head to Mulhoney, Wisconsin? Great apple pie, a killer mayoral election, and a heartfelt story about life in a rural town.

Readers will immediately fall in love with 16-year-old Hope. She has bounced from place to place, serving plates of meat loaf and frittata specials to diner patrons cooked up by her aunt Addie, with whom she lives. Since changing her name from Tulip to Hope, this protagonist always tries to live up to her name, offering readers an uplifting look at politics, love, friendship, and, literally, life, as a waitress at G. T. Stoop's Welcome Stairways diner. -Soozan Baxter

My Review: Ok, so for whatever reason the Goodreads review for Hope was Here isn't like the other book reviews on Goodreads, as I think it's a bit too revealing for a review. I've only added the first few paragraphs and I linked it so you can read the rest of their review.

This was a great book. Hope had a distinct, realistic personality. While reading through this book, I could actually see myself walking into a diner, ordering food, and listening to this group of characters talk around me as I'm enjoying the chef's favorite. I liked the multiple layers in this story. There's Hope's issue of having a mother who gave her away, a father who left and her adopted mother who is also her aunt who loves her and cares for her. Hope's spent a good portion of her life moving to different cities and we learn that someone embezzled money from her and left them essentially broke. Now in the new city in Mulhoney, Wisconsin, there's the added layer of small town corruption and the desire for good against evil. Or what is right and what is actually happening in politics.

It's obvious, to me, that this was a very well-thought out story, that it was plotted very well and that the dialogue seems to flow naturally and never comes across forced. Each action and reaction has a purpose, yet it comes across so effortlessly that you barely notice the correlation between that particular scene and the next plot twist.

I feel like I can relate to this story and I think other readers can as well. There's a segment where the owner of he diner, G.T. reveals he has cancer but still decides to run for mayor. The main questions: Will he live long enough to make office? Will he even make office?

All the characters and scenes in the story work well together, and all these questions floated in my head until I finished the story and wished that there were new questions to be answered.

Score: 4/5

This was a book?! Shrek! by William Steig

While looking through Goodreads, I came across a book that that I honestly had no idea was a book. Did you know that Shrek! by William Steig was a book? What book have you discovered recently that amazed you?

Goodreads summary: Shrek, a horrid little ogre, goes out into the world to find adventure and along the way encounters a witch, a knight in armor, a dragon, and, finally, a hideous princess, who's even uglier than he is! Paperback, 32 pages. Published September 1st, 1993 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (first published 1990).

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday #7

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is Being Friends with Boys by Terra Elan McVoy. Publication Date: March 13th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
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Goodreads summary: Charlotte and Oliver have been friends forever. She knows that he, Abe, and Trip consider her to be one of the guys, and she likes it that way. She likes being the friend who keeps them all together. Likes offering a girl's perspective on their love lives. Likes being the behind-the-scenes wordsmith who writes all the lyrics for the boys' band. Char has a house full of stepsisters and a past full of backstabbing (female) ex-best friends, so for her, being friends with boys is refreshingly drama-free...until it isn't any more.

When a new boy enters the scene and makes Char feel like, well, a total girl...and two of her other friends have a falling out that may or may not be related to one of them deciding he possibly wants to be more than friendswith Char...being friends with all these boys suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

Why I'm waiting on it: I really like this concept. Too often I see a book where it's the complete opposite scenario: the girl only has girl friends, or the girl has one boy and one girl friend, etc. Maybe it's just me and my lack of perception, but I haven't seen a book with a female narrator and she only has male friends. If you know of books that are similar to this, feel free to write them in the comments and I'd be more than happy to check 'em out!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday #6


Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is Pretty Crooked (Pretty Crooked #1) by Elisa Ludwig. Publication Date: March 13th 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books.

Goodreads summary: Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”—known to everyone as the Glitterati—without them suspecting a thing is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her: evening the social playing field between the haves and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of thefts at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could Aidan wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Book Trailer Thursday! His Eyes by Renee Carter

Book Trailer Thursday is a weekly feature started by Once Upon A Twilight, and features a book trailer for a new or upcoming release! My Trailer: His Eyes by Renee Carter

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday #5 / WWW Wednesdays

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is The Story of Us by Deb Caletti. Publication Date: April 24th, 2012 by Simon Pulse.

Goodreads summary: Cricket’s on a self-imposed break from her longtime boyfriend—but she’s picked a bad week to sort out her love life. For one thing, her mother’s romance is taking center stage: After jilting two previous fiancés, her mom is finally marrying Dan Jax, whom Cricket loves. But as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities at a guesthouse whose hippie owners have a sweet, sexy son—Ash—complications arise:

Cricket’s future stepsisters make it clear they’re not happy about the marriage. An old friend decides this is the week to declare his love for Cricket. Grandpa chooses to reveal a big secret at a family gathering. Dan’s ex-wife shows up. And even the dogs—Cricket’s old, ill Jupiter and Dan’s young, lively Cruiser—seem to be declaring war.

While Cricket fears that Dan is in danger of becoming ditched husband-to-be number three, she’s also alarmed by her own desires. Because even though her boyfriend looms large in her mind, Ash is right in front of her....

What's your Waiting on Wednesday pick?

WWW Wednesdays is a reading meme hosted by Should be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions...
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you'll read next?
What are you currently reading?
I'm currently reading Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

What did you recently finish reading?
I recently re-read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter will never get old!

What do you think you'll read next?
I think it's time to read a classic - so I'll probably go through Project Gutenberg for a free HTML copy of a book. Maybe Alice in Wonderland?

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